Sparsely encoded wireless data may be decoded using techniques such as message passing algorithm (MPA). For a sparse code multiple access (SCMA) decoder, MPA is an iterative algorithm that infers the transmitted SCMA codewords by updating and passing messages representing the probabilities of each of the possible codewords from the associated codebook known by the receiver having been transmitted. Although MPA decoders may be less complex then maximum likelihood decoders, MPA decoder implementations may be resource intensive.